House and Senate Republicans are racing each other this week to see who can advance President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, as the two chambers move forward with their contrasting legislative strategies. In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Republicans are vowing to keep working on a budget resolution to advance President Trump’s priorities in a single bill, despite such an agreement eluding them for days. The chamber is set to blow through another self-imposed deadline as lawmakers remain at odds over key issues. In the Senate, meanwhile, top Republicans are moving on an effort to advance President Trump’s agenda in two separate bills, as the conference grows impatient with the House’s lack of progress. Speaker Johnson told reporters last week that the plan was for the House Budget Committee to mark up a budget resolution this week, as early as Tuesday, kicking off the reconciliation process. When lawmakers left the Capitol last week, a number of key issues remained unresolved in the House GOP’s reconciliation effort as there were still questions about raising the state and local tax deduction cap and increasing the debt ceiling.
On the Senate side, meanwhile, the Budget Committee is scheduled to mark up its own budget resolution for the first of two planned Trump agenda bills, moving on its own reconciliation strategy as the House struggles to reach an agreement. The measure, TEXT; TABLES, which Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) unveiled last week — would provide $175 billion to secure the U.S. southern border and $150 billion to reinforce national defense. It would increase annual spending by $85.5 billion and be paid for by $85.5 billion in budgetary offsets. The chamber plans to mark up the resolution Wednesday. If the Senate agrees to the measure, and the House follows suit, Republicans will unlock the budget reconciliation process, which will allow GOP lawmakers to enact President Trump’s agenda by circumventing the Democratic filibuster in the Senate. After the border-defense package, Senate Republicans would then move another piece of legislation to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
The Senate will vote on more of Trump’s Cabinet nominees this week — including two of his most controversial picks. On Monday, the chamber will hold a procedural vote for Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to be director of national intelligence, after the former congresswoman advanced out of committee in a party-line 9-8 vote. Additionally, the Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The former presidential candidate — who has drawn scrutiny for his vaccine skepticism — advanced out of committee in a 14-13 vote earlier this month, though several Republican senators remain wild cards when his nomination hits the floor for a final vote. Aside from those two picks, the Senate will hold procedural votes on Howard Lutnick’s nomination to be secretary of Commerce, Brooke Rollins’s nomination to be secretary of Agriculture and Kelly Loeffler’s nomination to be administrator of the Small Business Administration. On the committee level, the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote Thursday on Kash Patel’s nomination to be FBI director. Patel has drawn controversy for previous comments about how he would run the agency and if he would carry out retribution.
For today, the Senate will reconvene at 3:00 P.M. and will hold a vote at 5:30 P.M. on a Motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #18 Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii, to be Director of National Intelligence.
The House will meet at 2:00 P.M. and will take up six bills from the Financial Services Committee under suspension of the Rules including H.R. 975 – Credit Union Board Modernization Act.
